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Does anyone have in their possession a D830 with nvs140m?

post #1 of 12
12/27/07 at 3:00pm
Thread Starter 
I had a D620 with the nvs120m, and I was very disappointed by graphics performance. I'm told the 140 is build off of an 8400, which should be much better than the 7300 the 120 is built off of. Also, my D620 had 64mb dedicated, and I'm told the D830 has 256mb dedicated. Does anyone who actually HAS the laptop have any input on how the thing handles games? I'm not expecting it to do well, but my D620 couldn't run anything even with the lowest setting on.
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post #2 of 12
12/27/07 at 9:58pm
The Quadro 120M is closer to the GeForce 7400 in performance.

The D830 does have 256MB of Dedicated memory for the GPU. However, more memory on a GPU does not equate to better performance. Unfortunately if you're looking for performance, the Latitude is NOT the laptop for you. These systems are designed for the corporate bean counter. NOT the home user.
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post #3 of 12
12/28/07 at 3:29am
Thread Starter 
Yeah I know. I just really want something I can dock on my desk, use the modular bay accessories that I spent a bundle on, as well as do some casual gaming now and then. So far, the m70 seems to be the only item that is close to fitting the bill.
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post #4 of 12
12/28/07 at 1:02pm
The M70 is pretty ancient. I don't think you're going to like the gaming performance on it either simply because while the video card is a stout performer. The CPU is not being single cored and with NO upgrade path.

You're not saving yourself any money either buying the system that's been discontinued for 2 years. Odds are you might get a year out of it before it won't handle what you want it to do.

I'd say try finding an M90 in the outlet. I saw some M6300's in there yesterday that were roughly $1600 the Quadro in the M6300 currently is a GeForce8700 equivalent. The ONLY thing you won't be using with the M90 or M6300 is the modular bay devices except when you're docked.

Also, if you bought your dock on eBay like a smart little NBF member, you could probably list it FS here at NBF or back on eBay and get your money back.
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post #5 of 12
12/29/07 at 10:47pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I got it all off ebay. However, I've heard nothing but bad news about the 1600m, so I ruled out that one as well. I'm not looking for hardcore gaming (which, to be honest, the m90s do not perform well enough to justify the price in my opinion) and I'm not really impressed with dual-core processors. 64-bit this, dual-core that, won't make a whole lot of difference until people learn how to write software better. Shoot, our stupid inventory program at work still forces us to use dot-matrix printers for invoicing... We've run the program on 500mhz Athlons with 256mb of RAM for a long time, so processing power doesn't really scare me. I used to run CS:S on my 9300 with the 6800 and a 1.73-->2.26 pinmod and get awesome framerates. If I have to turn HDR off and put the textures on low, so be it.

I think I'll skip the d830 though. Why can't anyone make an all-in-one system? Is it against the law to have a business-class laptop with a dedicated graphics card that doesn't suck?

The only system I know of that kind of bridged the gap was the Alienware m5500 (and some others with similar ideas) where they had both an onboard GPU and a dedicated. Sadly, it didn't work very well. My m5500 gets about 80 minutes battery on the Geforce 7600, and about 81 minutes on the GMA950. Other companies, like Sony, had a GMA 950 with a Geforce 7300, which is just a plain waste of time/money/resources.

I ramble. Oh well.
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post #6 of 12
12/29/07 at 11:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevineugenius View Post
. I'm not looking for hardcore gaming (which, to be honest, the m90s do not perform well enough to justify the price in my opinion)
The precision M90 in case you haven't noticed is an XPS M1710 with a different outter shell. The Quadro FX 3500 is a 7950GTX with a different BIOS that lets you use Quadro drivers. It's no desktop, but it's one of the fastest non SLI Laptops you can get, and the fastest laptop you can get that supports a docking station.

Quote:
Why can't anyone make an all-in-one system? Is it against the law to have a business-class laptop with a dedicated graphics card that doesn't suck?

No, its just that if they did sell such a laptop, nobody would buy it. ESPECIALLY the fleet customers. And again, I showed you TWO business class laptops that have video cards that don't suck. WHy the hell does it matter to you anyway. You just stated that you AREN'T A HARDCORE GAMER. Herein is the problem in the business world. Companies like BP, Bell Helicopter, Tyson, Afilliated Foods, and the federal government don't buy laptops because the employees can play games on them. They buy laptops so that their employees can get their jobs done on the go. 90% of D Series laptops won't see any 3D work tougher than an old version of AutoCAD. Putting a more powerful video card in a laptop designed to get some serious work done is an unnecessary expense. Which the accounting department won't go for.
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post #7 of 12
12/30/07 at 3:01pm
Thread Starter 
I agree, and I disagree. I've owned three m90s, and always sell them because I get such a good deal on them, and then I get greedy and sell them for more than I paid... anyway, I can tell you right now, my inspiron 9300 got better framerates than the m90 did. I'm not going to spend over $1500 to get a system where I have to turn detail off, so I'll spend $700 on an m70 and THEN turn the detail off. Plus, I'll get to use my secondary d-bay battery and etc.

Corporate america doesnt need to supply their employees with powerhouse gamers, but as we can see by the fact that Compaq is still in business, if you build the laptop, SOMEONE will buy it. Might not be the best business decision ever made, but greater selection can't really hurt a manufacturer that much. Especially Dell, since they don't manufacture.
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post #8 of 12
12/31/07 at 10:26am
Try to find a used 1720 for a good deal. It is made for gaming and will also dock. I do have a d830. I don't game but I can tell you just from running windows media player 3D visualizations that it is no 3D gamer. I am with you on the dock though. I wont by a laptop that doesn't work with a dock.
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post #9 of 12
12/31/07 at 2:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevineugenius View Post
I agree, and I disagree. I've owned three m90s, and always sell them because I get such a good deal on them, and then I get greedy and sell them for more than I paid... anyway, I can tell you right now, my inspiron 9300 got better framerates than the m90 did. I'm not going to spend over $1500 to get a system where I have to turn detail off, so I'll spend $700 on an m70 and THEN turn the detail off. Plus, I'll get to use my secondary d-bay battery and etc.

Corporate america doesnt need to supply their employees with powerhouse gamers, but as we can see by the fact that Compaq is still in business, if you build the laptop, SOMEONE will buy it. Might not be the best business decision ever made, but greater selection can't really hurt a manufacturer that much. Especially Dell, since they don't manufacture.
Dell does not manufacture true. However, Dell does create their own designs which are then produced by 3rd party contractors. Hence why you don't see any current Dell laptops being sold under another brand (Well, that new Latitude tablet might not be Dell's). Manufacturing is a minor expenditure especially considering that almost EVERYONE has it done by somebody else overseas. The real expense is in the design and engineering of a new product, why go to the expense of designing a laptop for a specific audience that that audience won't buy?

As far as your lack of success with the M90 is concerned that can be chalked up to a whole host of factors. There's no logical explanation hardware wise that the M90 would perform slower than a 9300. There are several M90 owners on this site that get performance as good as E1705 and M1710 owners.
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post #10 of 12
12/31/07 at 3:05pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I don't know what the deal is either. It's like it can't handle fast vertical synchronizations or something (almost like playing on something with a 20hz refresh rate, lots of horizontal glitches). I've had desktops do that, which is fixed by turning on Vsync in steam games, but the m90 isn't powerful enough to maintain framerates with Vsync on. Playing Portal on it, the little blue dots that you have to walk through before you get to the elevators between levels would drop the framerate from 45-50 to about 20 for a couple seconds. Firefights in CS:S are murder. I dunno, overall I have to say Quadro cards are pretty worthless, though I haven't had a comparable 7900/7950 to compare them to.
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post #11 of 12
1/8/08 at 11:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hyperasus View Post
Try to find a used 1720 for a good deal. It is made for gaming and will also dock. I do have a d830. I don't game but I can tell you just from running windows media player 3D visualizations that it is no 3D gamer. I am with you on the dock though. I wont by a laptop that doesn't work with a dock.

The 1720 doesn't have a docking connector.
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post #12 of 12
1/19/08 at 2:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevineugenius View Post
I had a D620 with the nvs120m, and I was very disappointed by graphics performance. I'm told the 140 is build off of an 8400, which should be much better than the 7300 the 120 is built off of. Also, my D620 had 64mb dedicated, and I'm told the D830 has 256mb dedicated. Does anyone who actually HAS the laptop have any input on how the thing handles games? I'm not expecting it to do well, but my D620 couldn't run anything even with the lowest setting on.
I have it. I do not use games, but as i wrote a review, i used 3dmark 06, and the score was 1522. I have still not tested with 3d mark 05.
The 140m comes from 8400m Gs, it has got 64bit, and yes, 256mb dedicated.
It is pretty good. Even if I would suggest you to be carefull to the WSXGA+ resolution, as it is a SEC3350, and some people like it but some other no. I find it quite terrible.
The rest is pretty good...
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